If you’ve been on TikTok in the past few weeks, there’s every chance you’ll have picked up on the resurgence of a certain docuseries from the late 1990s.
Recent history has seen clips from Airline – yep, that ITV show from back on the day that followed the goings on at EasyJet desks around the country – doing the rounds on social media, racking up hundreds of thousands of views.
But there’s one woman in particular who’s quickly ascended to “hun” status – check-in desk icon Jane Boulton.
On Friday, Jane paid a visit to This Morning, where she spoke to Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond about Airline’s unexpected resurgence, and her newfound TikTok fame.
Jane confessed she has “no idea” what led to the show’s popularity on social media, explaining: “I’ve got 13-year-old twins and a 15-year-old, and one of them mentioned, ‘there’s something about you on TikTok’. And I thought, ‘no, don’t be ridiculous’. Of course, I never even had TikTok, I’m not very good on social media – I’m 53 on Friday! I’ve got no idea!
“And then one of them showed me, and I’ve got older nieces, who came round and said, ‘I think you need to set up a TikTok account’.”
After setting up her account to “be nosy and see what was out there, really”, Jane said she was stunned at the reaction.
“The most bizarre thing is a lot of the comments [say], ‘my mum used to watch you, my dad used to watch you, we think you’re an icon’, weirdly enough,” she said, with Alison confessing she “always thought you were an icon, to be honest with you”.
“Thank you, but I just find it really weird!” Jane said with a laugh. “Half of them I don’t think were even born when it came out.”
Discussing how she dealt with some of Airline’s more difficult passengers, Jane admitted: “Gosh, I wouldn’t probably behave like that now. I think you forget sometimes you’ve got a mic on, and I would say something under my breath as I walked away, which years later, I wouldn’t do.
“But now, people are so afraid to actually say anything!”
And when Dermot pointed out how rare it was for someone to go viral for positive reasons, Jane agreed: “It’s amazing! I was expecting a whole barrage of, ‘oh my god, you’re really horrible, you’re such this, you’re such that’, but actually it’s been the complete opposite.
“It’s been a shock, but a nice shock.”
Watch Jane’s full interview on This Morning here:
Airline ran for 10 seasons between 1998 and 2006, at one stage becoming the most popular factual show airing on ITV.
Since the show came to an end almost 20 years ago, Jane now works for Hertfordshire County Council and runs her own cake business, Party Paradise.
This Morning airs every weekday from 10am on ITV1.